Migrating to a SSD/HDD Combo

I am about to purchase a mid 2011 iMac spec'd up by Apple with a 256gb SSD and a 1TB HD.

If I use migration assistant to transfer data from my old iMac, which has over 256gb of data, will it offer me the choice of where to put stuff? For example, my iPhoto library is around 90-100GB; I'd like that to go on the HD.

Alternatively, I could make a DIY fusion drive with the 2 drives and then do the migration.

I take your point and I'm intrigued by the DIY FD option. However, I don't feel that I would have to manage the data as I would only use the HD for media libraries, such as iPhoto, iMovie and perhaps iTunes although I already have that on an external.

The 256 GB SSD would probably be enough for my every day data.

Do you know anything regarding my first question?

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Could I manually copy my iPhoto lib to the HD, delete it from my old Mac (or exclude it from transfer) then migrate to the SSD?

This is my opinion only, and others may disagree, but if you don't have any problems with managing two individual drives (SSD and HDD), I'd suggest you run a "non-fusion" setup.

I keep no less than SEVEN individual drive icons on my desktop at all times, and don't have any problems knowing where data is distributed on them...

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I agree in principal. If I had my movie and photo libs on the HD, would there be any noticeable performance hit? At the moment, I run my iTunes lib off a external usb 2 drive and that seems to run fine.

Does Mac OS X move what you open into cache storage and would this be SSD-like?

I'm quite happy to go the DIY FD route (the mods don't scare me) but also, if I had really no need for it then keep as is.

I agree in principal. If I had my movie and photo libs on the HD, would there be any noticeable performance hit? At the moment, I run my iTunes lib off a external usb 2 drive and that seems to run fine.

Does Mac OS X move what you open into cache storage and would this be SSD-like?

I'm quite happy to go the DIY FD route (the mods don't scare me) but also, if I had really no need for it then keep as is.

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Well, it really depends on how you use the Mac and what you use it for. I should have mentioned earlier that Fusion works at a block level rather than a file one, so a little cleverer than file management.

Anyway, your most frequently used disk blocks end up on the SSD apart from 4gig which is used for copying to the FD (so copying data to that drive is fast up to that limit). So, if you have frequently accessed files (editing the same picture multiple times, playing the same movie) you will get to them faster than the less frequently accessed ones. if you're just using the Mac for browsing and consuming video/audio, you might not notice a difference in playback, you probably would in loading.

I decided to go with the separate SSD and HDD option. I unchecked the movies and pictures folders in migration assistant and copied them over later onto the HDD. I then created symlinks to those folders.

I think this will work ok, however, one issue I have is with the behaviour of drag and drop to the HDD. Mac OS X sees the drive as if it's an external drive and rather than moving a file, it copies a file, which means I have to trash the original. I know this can be over-ridden by holding the command key but this is a little annoying.

Also, if I trash a large amount of data on the HDD, does it go in the trash on the SSD? Or is it just tagged to be overwritten?

I did have some separate issues with the migration too. Basically, I had to setup a temp account on the newer Mac so that I could login to the app store and purchase, download and install Mavericks. Trouble is, I installed it as an upgrade and then used MA to migrate my old Mac data across. This caused permissions and ownership issues because the temp account had the UID 501, so the 501 account from my old Mac took slot 501 and so on. Stuff on my external drives, which I'd connected when using the temp test account now belonged to that account. I'm not sure of the technicalities of why it did this.

I would never do it like this again. I should have erased the disk and installed fresh, then used setup assistant.

Staff Member

Also, if I trash a large amount of data on the HDD, does it go in the trash on the SSD? Or is it just tagged to be overwritten?

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It goes to a hidden .Trashes folder on the HDD and will be emptied when you empty trash normally.

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I did have some separate issues with the migration too. Basically, I had to setup a temp account on the newer Mac so that I could login to the app store and purchase, download and install Mavericks. Trouble is, I installed it as an upgrade and then used MA to migrate my old Mac data across. This caused permissions and ownership issues because the temp account had the UID 501, so the 501 account from my old Mac took slot 501 and so on. Stuff on my external drives, which I'd connected when using the temp test account now belonged to that account. I'm not sure of the technicalities of why it did this.

I would never do it like this again. I should have erased the disk and installed fresh, then used setup assistant.

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Makes sense... like you discovered you took 501 so importing the old 501 caused issues.

As you said, the best way is to do it is at setup so this is avoided.

What you could have done is make two temp accounts 501 and 502. Then login to 502 and delete 501 then run MA and it would have been able to bring across 501 no problem.

Staff Member

Thanks. I don't think I have any issues on the Mac now, but I do occasionally run into something on the ext drives. Very odd.

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You could always add a new temp account now that would be 502 and from inside 502 delete your real 501 account and reimport. A hassle, but that should set things right.

If it is just the HDD you are having issues with and you are not concerned about security since it is just music anyway... you could command-i info on the volume then check the ignore permissions for this volume checkbox.

You could always add a new temp account now that would be 502 and from inside 502 delete your real 501 account and reimport. A hassle, but that should set things right.

If it is just the HDD you are having issues with and you are not concerned about security since it is just music anyway... you could command-i info on the volume then check the ignore permissions for this volume checkbox.

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I think I'll do the latter.

I do get asked to authenticate a little more than I used to, but perhaps that's extra security since Lion?

Staff Member

I do get asked to authenticate a little more than I used to, but perhaps that's extra security since Lion?

I may be a little too far down the line to reimport now.

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Lion did start something called App Sandboxing that does make you enter a password more often when messing around moving apps etc, but I can't think of anything there that might impact moving files back and forth to your HDD.

Lion did start something called App Sandboxing that does make you enter a password more often when messing around moving apps etc, but I can't think of anything there that might impact moving files back and forth to your HDD.

I hear you on repeating everything.

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Well, I just checked the 'ignore ownership' on one of my drives and that's now fine. Time Machine wants to backup my entire iTunes lib (which is on said ext hd) cos it thinks it's changed.

[[ I think this will work ok, however, one issue I have is with the behaviour of drag and drop to the HDD. Mac OS X sees the drive as if it's an external drive and rather than moving a file, it copies a file, which means I have to trash the original. I know this can be over-ridden by holding the command key but this is a little annoying. ]]

I find it odd that Apple has never included a finder command named "Move..."
That is, select the file(s)/folder(s) in question, then
Choose "Move..." from the menu, then
Finder presents a standard "put file" dialog allowing user to choose a destination, then
Finder copies file(s)/folder(s) to new specified location AND deletes them from the OLD location.

There are 3rd-party "finder replacement" apps that can handle this for you.
Check out "Pathfinder"...

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